Expert Witness : World News

On 27 December it was announced that a Florida man had pleaded guilty to "engaging in a scheme to illegally import the fossilized remains of numerous dinosaurs that had been taken out of their native countries illegally and smuggled into the United States". The skeletons included that of a Tyrannosaurus bataar – an Asian relative of Tyrannosaurus rex – that had been imported via the UK and sold at auction in May for over $1m, despite an injunction issued by a US judge.

The guilty plea by self-proclaimed 'commercial palaeontologist' Eric Prokopi was announced by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York 'Preet' Bharara, who had taken up the case on behalf of the Mongolian Government. As part of a plea bargain, Prokopi has agreed to the forfeiture of the nearly complete Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton, as well as a second nearly complete specimen in the US, a Saurolophus skeleton and an Oviraptor skeleton, all of which had been in his possession and were recently recovered by the government. He will also forfeit his interest in a third Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton believed to be still in Great Britain.

On 12 December the European Parliament voted to implement a common European patent law. It follows an agreement earlier this year to unify the patent courts into three centres in the UK, Germany and France.

According to a release issued by the Parliament: "After over 30 years of talks, a new regime will cut the cost of an EU patent by up to 80%, making it more competitive vis-à-vis the US and Japan. MEPs cut costs for small firms and tailored the regime to their needs, in a compromise deal with the Council endorsed by Parliament on Tuesday."

Bernhard Rapkay, the German MEP who led on the regulation setting up the unitary system, commented: "Intellectual property must not stop at borders. The path towards the introduction of the EU patent was long and troubled, but ultimately it has been worth the effort. Today's vote is good news for EU economy and especially for European small and medium enterprises."

Italian MEP Raffaele Baldassarre, who led talks on the regime for translating EU patents, described the current regime as "...effectively a tax on innovation".

A leading environmentalist MEP has claimed that short-term economic gain and political priorities take precedence over the marine environment when it comes to taking action against illegal fishing.

On November 15, the European Commission notified third countries that it considers as potentially being non-cooperative when it comes to establishing a community system to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. It is a move applauded by Raül Romeva i Rueda, vice president of the Greens/European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament.

"Everybody agrees that illegal fishing must be fought against and eradicated but they all insist that it is always somebody else's fault," he wrote in a recent issue of PublicServiceEurope.com.

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has issued a report on the findings of on-the-spot inspections conducted between 15 June and 18 July on the premises of 13 Brussels-based EU institutions and bodies. The inspections formed one of the measures announced in a follow-up report in February outlining compliance by EU institutions and bodies with the 2010 EDPS Video-surveillance Guidelines.

The report, which is not published, contains recommendations for the 13 bodies on how to improve the way in which information about video-surveillance is provided to the general public, including:

• The existence, location and content of selected on-the-spot notices highlighting that the area is under surveillance.• The availability and the content of a data protection notice at the reception or via security personnel• The availability and the content of an online policy.

The opening day of the International Bar Association's annual conference in Dublin saw a speech by Nobel economics laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz urging lawyers worldwide to resist a diminution in access to justice.

"Inequality was growing before the financial crisis and has been exacerbated by it," he told the conference, reported by the Law Society Gazette. "In 2010, 93% of growth went to the top 1% – many of you in this room," he said, adding that the "challenge for the legal profession" is to ensure that "the promise of justice for all" does not become "justice for those that can afford it".